[trauma2020]

I've just started learning how to drive stick and while I have the basics down, I think my biggest problem is getting going from a stop in 1st.. I can do it slowly but I'd be pretty shaky if I had to do it on a hill or in heavy traffic.

Right now I've found the smoothest way (or only way without stalling) for me to get going so far is to release the clutch , wait for it to hit the engagement point and the car to start rolling a little bit, then i give it a little bit of gas and release the clutch all the way. Since this does take a little longer than I'd like, I was wonder if this is the correct way and I'm just not used to it yet, or if there was a better way to do it?

I watched the "gentle launch" video on page 2 of this thread and saw that the guy would give it gas and rev up to about 1000rpm and then simply just let out the clutch smoothly - kind of the opposite order of what I was doing but seems a little more straightforward. Is that a better / quicker way to get going?

Thanks

-edit: just thought of another question. I read this whole thread and a lot of the discussion was on rev matching on downshifts.... If you were slowing down to take a turn on a normal city street you wouldn't need to rev match do you? Because you are braking as you clutch in and select the lower gear, so by the time you let the clutch out you should be down to an appropriate speed for that gear at the rpms you were already going right?